INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR. THE regions to which these Researches of the learned Ameri- can Missionaries have been directed, derive a peculiar interest from having been the primeval centre of the post-diluvian world, from which all the original races diverged, as well as the scene of some of the most remarkable transactions in ancient his- tory. Armenia is a country belonging to sacred geography. Its territory, in the earliest times, was shared between the Assyrian, the Median, and the Aramean empires. In later times, it was the border country where the rival powers of Rome and Parthia wasted their strength in a fruitless and ruinous contest for su- premacy. In fact, from time immemorial to the present day, the country watered by the Upper Euphrates between Ararat and Taurus has been the theatre of perpetual war. Alternately ravaged by one or other of the contending parties, it has either been crushed by their protection, ruined by their collision, or divided between them on their coalition. Familiar as is the name of the country, the greater part is still, however, to the topographer, terra incognita; and its ancient geography is involved in the greatest obscurity. The high road from Constantinople to Tabriz, via Tokat, Erzroom, and Erivan, leading through the heart of both Armenias, is, indeed, well known to mercantile and other European travellers; but vague and imperfect, at best, must be the information collected in a hurried journey under escort of a Tatar courier. Accordingly, the travels of Tournefort, Macdonald Kinneir, Morier, and Ker Porter, the chief sources of the information hitherto possessed respecting its present condition, furnish an extremely small portion of scientific description, which is limited to the provinces inter- sected by their routes. More recently, a learned German tra- veller*, who has fallen victim to his zeal for the promotion of * In the year 1826, M. Scliulz, Professor in the University of Giessen, undertook a jour- ney of literary discovery in Asiatic Turkey and Persia, under the auspices of Baron Dumas, C xiv INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR. geographical discovery, has explored the shores of the great inland lakes in the central provinces; and an English officer in the ser- vice of the late prince-governor of Tabriz, has executed an original survey of the small part of Armenia still subject to Persia, from his own observations during a tour undertaken by his Highness's orders.* The present work, however, is by far the most valuable, relating to Armenia, that has hitherto been made public ; not only on account of the important contributions which it supplies to geographical knowledge, but also from its containing an authentic and highly interesting account of its Christian inhabitants—the living relics and monuments of ancient churches, by whom, alike under the Ottoman and the Persian yoke, surrounded and inter- mixed with a Mohammedan population, the name and form of Christianity have been perpetuated during successive ages :—an historical phenomenon which the Author of these Researches calls upon us to view " as an indication of God's intention ere long to restore the spirit" of that religion thus singularly preserved. According to the statements of native writers, adopted by Mr. Smith, Armenia, in the most flourishing period of its history, was divided into fifteen provinces, which again were subdivided into almost as many cantons as there are valleys in its mountainous regions. These divisions, however, although of some importance to Armenian history, perplex rather than illustrate the geography of the country; and the greatest difficulty attends the attempt to fix their true situation and boundaries. The truth is, that the name of Armenia has been extended to a groupe of countries, in- habited by different races, subject to different governments, and probably at no time united under one monarchy. The denomina- tion of First, Second, Third, and Fourth Armenia are of Roman origin, and denote territories assigned to tributary Armenian princes, or peopled chiefly by Armenian emigrants, but forming no part of their original country. That which is called Armenia Minor, in contradistinction from Armenia Major, from which it is divided by the north-western head of the Euphrates, cannot be regarded as properly belonging to the country known to geography under that name, since it has always been considered as part of then Minister for Foreign Affairs at Paris. Some account of his discoveries at Van appeared in the Nouveau Journal Asiatique, t. ii. (182S.) He was subsequently murdered near the monastery of Derrie in the valley of the Zab, by Mustafa Khan, the Kurdish ehieftan of the Hukkaney territory. * See Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. iii. art. 1. INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR. XV Asia Minor, and is distinguished by other denominations. The modern kingdom of Armenia had for its seat the Roman Cilicia. Of the other provinces, some are situated in Mesopotamia, and, though subject, at one time, to Armenian rule, are expressly dis- tinguished, in the native records, from "the land of the Arme- nians," or what is still called by the Persians, Ermenistan. Other districts, again, included in the fifteen provinces, properly form part of Georgia and Persia. The original Armenia, the Minni of the Hebrew Scriptures, was probably limited to the provinces of Erivan and Nakhchevan, which now alone, by a singular fortune, retain, under Russian sway, that denomination. The kingdom of Ararat, referred to in the Old Testament as distinct, may be concluded to have com- prised the old Armenian province of that name, together with that of Durooperan. It is a remarkable fact, that, while the valley of the Aras offered a ready descent from the mountains of Ararat, which has been a sort of highway from the time of Noah to the present day*, the country enclosed by those mountains to the west, and south, through which the eastern head-stream of the Euphrates descends towards Mesopotamia, have remained almost unknown and inaccessible. There is reason to believe that the western writers had no knowledge of the river now known under the name of the Murad-chai, and which has the strongest geographical claim to the name of Euphrates. The region intervening between the basin of the Araxes and that of Lake Van and the head waters of the Tigris, has remained to the present day secluded from obser- vation, and all but lost to geography. No route, ancient or mo- dern, intersects it.f Ararat, the primeval centre of diverging nations, has remained^ age after age, the great barrier between the eastern and western portions of the elder world; and it now forms, as it were, the boundary-stone of the three great empires of Russia, Turkey, and Persia, while its recesses enclose pastoral and other hardy tribes who maintain a savage independence. The mountain to which more particularly Europeans give the name of Ararat, but which the Armenian natives know under the * See pages 256, 268. f The route from Cilicia. to Susa, mentioned by Herodotus, which lay through " Arme- nia above Assyria," crossed the Tigris, the Great and Little Zab, and the Gyndes or Kizil- ozan. Thus, it lay through Kurdistan and Aderbaijan, but scarcely within the frontier of Armenia Proper. xvi INTHODUCTORY MEMOIR, name of Masis, and the Turks call Aghur-dagh*, consists of two immense conical masses, one peak considerably lower than the other, rising majestically from the low valley of the Aras into the region of perpetual snow. Various efforts had been made by ad- venturous travellers to scale these mountain pyramids,-but uni- formly without success, when at length, in 1830, Professor Parrot, by dint of the most determined perseverance, overcame every obstacle, and ascertained the positive elevation of the loftier peak to be 16,200 feet above the sea, about 500 feet loftier than Mont Blanc. The summit is described as being a circular plain about J GO feet in circumference, and united by a gentle descent to the less elevated peak towards the east, which is about 13,100 feet in height. The whole of the upper region of the mountain, from the height of 12,750 feet, is covered with perpetual snow and ice; and not unfrequently, avalanches precipitate themselves down its sides with tremendous sound. The range with which it is connected, and of which it forms the termination towards the S.E., is a branch of the Caucasian chain. Sweeping round in a circuitous course towards the junction of the two head-streams of the Euphrates, it separates the valley of the Murad-chai from the basin of the Aras, and forms the great barrier which divides the Kürdish race from the Turkish. These mountains are ultimately connected with the Cilician Taurus on the one hand, and the Corcyraean or Baktiari range on the other. In fact, all the mountains of Western Asia appear to belong to one system. What may be denominated Armenia Proper comprises the whole of the valley of the Aras, the Mesopotamia of the Aras and the Koor, the valley of the Murad-chai or Eastern Euphrates, and part of the elevated basins of the lakes of Van and Oormiah; its boundaries on the side of Kürdistán and Aderbaijáa being doubtful and varying at different periods. The latter country, the Media Atrupatene of the ancients, is called in Armenian, Mark, i. e. fron- tier or border country ; and it is probable that it has always been either neutral or disputed territory. Ancient Assyria appears to have extended northward to the boundaries of Ararat, and to have comprised the pashaliks of Van and Diarbekir with Persarmenia, including at least part of Aderbaiján ; answering, in fact, pretty exactly to modern Kürdistán. The region of the northern * See p.